American Steamship Company bought by Rand Logistics

Shipping in the Great Lakes area has undergone its own consolidation with a merger of two big names.

Rand Logistics has entered into a $260m stock purchase agreement to acquire American Steamship Company (ASC), the largest operator of US-flagged vessels on the Great Lakes. ASC has been owned by GATX Corporation since 1973.

Rand is an affiliate of American Industrial Partners and provides dry bulk shipping services throughout the Great Lakes region.

“The strategic combination of Rand and ASC will create the largest and most diverse fleet on the Great Lakes, serving different and highly complementary markets with multiple self-unloading vessel classes,” Rand stated in a release.

“We are excited about this transformative combination of two leading vessel operators on the Great Lakes. This strategic union will create significant additional shipping capacity through network efficiencies and repositioning of the respective fleets. All of which will allow the resulting company to further improve its customer service and offer additional flexibility and shipping capacity to its customer base,” said Peter Coxon, CEO of Rand.

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.